Beehiiv has become a popular platform for newsletter creators, often lauded for its clean design and focus on email publishing. While it offers several strengths, my personal experience has been mixed. I’m still using Beehiiv for now because I’m "locked in" with my current setup, but I’m strongly considering switching platforms when it’s time to renew. Here’s my detailed review:
Beehiiv’s minimalist design is a double-edged sword. While some creators appreciate its clean and simple interface, I’ve found it difficult to navigate—especially when managing multiple publications. The recent updates have only added to the confusion, making it harder to access key features efficiently.
If you’re someone who values a highly intuitive workflow, this might be something to consider before choosing Beehiiv.
Mobile devices are where many readers consume newsletters, so ensuring mobile-friendly formatting is critical. Unfortunately, Beehiiv doesn’t guarantee that your content will display perfectly on mobile devices by default. For my publication, I’ve had to test layouts manually, which adds extra time to the process.
If mobile readership is a significant part of your audience, make sure you double-check how your content looks on smaller screens.
Mobile preview for my template. It’s a bit hard to see but the content is not fully responsive in mobile and user will need to scroll left and right to view the full content.
One major limitation is the inability to upload videos directly. Instead, I’ve had to embed videos manually using HTML, which is time-consuming and clunky. This feels like an oversight for a modern newsletter platform and adds unnecessary complexity to the process.
If embedding videos is a frequent part of your content strategy, you may want to consider this limitation when evaluating Beehiiv.
Compared to other platforms like Substack, Medium, Notion, and Quip, Beehiiv’s editor feels outdated and unintuitive. Writing and previewing content simultaneously isn’t an option, which has caused me to waste time fixing formatting issues that only become apparent in preview mode.
The recent updates to the editor haven’t addressed these issues; in fact, they’ve made the experience worse. For creators juggling multiple sources and media elements, this can be a significant frustration.
To be fair, Beehiiv is primarily an email-first platform, so its limitations in web-publishing SEO are understandable. However, I’ve encountered multiple issues flagged by Google Search Console, particularly with indexing pages hosted on my custom domain.
While not every page needs to be indexed, I’ve found that some pages I expected to rank in search results were left out entirely. If organic traffic is a priority for your newsletter, this could be a limitation worth noting.
It’s worth mentioning that my review is based entirely on my personal experience, and I may not be utilizing all the features Beehiiv offers. The platform has supported multiple popular newsletters and is known for several strong features that I haven’t explored in depth.
For example, Beehiiv provides tools for audience segmentation, monetization, and analytics, which are highly praised by many users. I haven’t used these features extensively, so they didn’t factor into my review. Instead, I focused on the aspects of Beehiiv that align with my specific workflow and needs.
If you’re considering Beehiiv, I recommend exploring the full range of its features to determine whether it’s a good fit for you. Every creator’s workflow is different, and Beehiiv may shine in areas that I haven’t prioritized.
Despite these challenges, I’m still using Beehiiv because my current workflow is tied to the platform. Migrating to another tool takes time and effort, which I’m not ready to commit to just yet. However, when my renewal comes up, I’ll be seriously reconsidering my options.
Beehiiv has its strengths, and I understand why it works for many creators. That said, for my specific needs, it hasn’t been the ideal solution. I’ll be keeping an eye on the platform’s development and updates—if they address these usability and feature gaps, Beehiiv could become a more competitive option in the future.
If you’re exploring Beehiiv for your newsletter, I recommend testing the platform thoroughly to see if it meets your needs, especially for mobile-friendliness, video embedding, and editing features.